While the Fourth Reich’s Führer consolidates power, an offer of benevolence to those under his rule will for a time be instituted. The great leader will, as Hitler in the 1930s, reach out to various groups and convince them that if they support him completely, they’ll eventually be restored to normality.
This promise will be greatly desired because, as we have seen, chaos will certainly follow the disappearance of millions. It will be the greatest crisis of human history to that point. COVID-19 and all other crises through the ages will seem as nothing. The vanishing will haunt every waking moment of the people alive at that time. Their worst nightmares will have come to life. They’ll gladly give the leader whatever he asks as he promises to turn their world right-side up again.
Whether we recognize it or not, we have in our very soul a God-shaped void, a deep need for the God who created us. The Fall in the Garden of Eden separated God and mankind. Only a reunification with the Creator-God can satisfy that emptiness. People of the post-Rapture world will sense in their core beings the need for the comfort and reassurance only God will be able to fill. They will, therefore, search for that level of comfort. They will think they have found it when a man appears on the scene who comes alongside the great political leader who promises that if they obey his edicts, they’ll ultimately have Heaven on earth.
False Prophet’s Appeal
The man will come wearing the clerical robes of high ecclesiastical prominence. He will be near the great leader and will promote the political agenda as righteous…even godly. He will manage to meld many religions and cults into the geopolitical system—a truly ecumenical orchestration that will synthesize all ways to get to Heaven the world’s rebellious populations have long desired to be promised. The great religions of the world will for the most part eagerly join the new religious amalgamation.
For the time being, the rising leader of the Fourth Reich will be content to allow the religious hybrid entity to ride atop the swelling tide of his rise to full power. The religious fervor will be like that of the Nuremberg rallies during Hitler’s time. The new religion will give all honor to the political elements of the regime, while giving the people under the regime’s thumb of rule the sense that the “God void” in their souls is being filled.
God’s prophetic Word has an entirely different view of this religion that will rise alongside the first beast of Revelation 13, under the second beast’s mesmerizing orchestration. Here is God’s portrait of the system that will develop soon after the Rapture. Revelation 17 describes the great scarlet whore, a word picture of the decadence, debauchery, and prostitution of that coming religious entity, as John is shown this monstrosity by the angel:
So he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness: and I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet coloured beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns.
And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet colour, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and filthiness of her fornication: And upon her forehead was a name written, Mystery, Babylon the Great, the Mother of Harlots and Abominations of the Earth.
And I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus: and when I saw her, I wondered with great admiration. (Revelation 17:3–6)
The gaudily decked-out harlot riding upon the strange red beast is a picture of a religious system that is totally beholden to the political beast—the power that assures her existence. She has, this portrait tells, been responsible for sacrificing the people within her orbit to the ravenous monster she rides.
The scarlet beast is almost certainly the same one Daniel first saw (Daniel 8), and it is the same as the one John saw as it arose from the sea in Revelation chapter 13.
Arnold Fruchtenbaum, the Messianic Jewish scholar, identifies Babylon the harlot in Revelation 17:
Babylon the Harlot represents the one-world religious system that rules over the religious affairs during the first half of the Tribulation. She rules over the nations of the world (the many waters) fully controlling the religious affairs and has the reluctant support of the government. The headquarters of this one world religion will be the rebuilt city of Babylon, the “mother” of idolatry, for it was here that idolatry and false religion began (Genesis 11:1–9).[i]
One can only imagine what John thought as the vision played in front of his astonished eyes. He doubtless stood in stunned silence, muted by the gory scene before him.
The account of Daniel and the prophetic scenes he wondered over when the angel came states that he asked to know the meaning. We don’t get that sense with John. It doesn’t appear that he ever asked. So, the angel holding one of the seven vials of judgment took it upon himself to pull John out of his stupor.
And the angel said unto me, Wherefore didst thou marvel? I will tell thee the mystery of the woman, and of the beast that carrieth her, which hath the seven heads and ten horns.
The beast that thou sawest was, and is not; and shall ascend out of the bottomless pit, and go into perdition: and they that dwell on the earth shall wonder, whose names were not written in the book of life from the foundation of the world, when they behold the beast that was, and is not, and yet is. And here is the mind which hath wisdom.
The seven heads are seven mountains, on which the woman sitteth. And there are seven kings: five are fallen, and one is, and the other is not yet come; and when he cometh, he must continue a short space.
And the beast that was, and is not, even he is the eighth, and is of the seven, and goeth into perdition.
And the ten horns which thou sawest are ten kings, which have received no kingdom as yet; but receive power as kings one hour with the beast.
These have one mind, and shall give their power and strength unto the beast.
These shall make war with the Lamb, and the Lamb shall overcome them: for he is Lord of lords, and King of kings: and they that are with him are called, and chosen, and faithful.
And he saith unto me, The waters which thou sawest, where the whore sitteth, are peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues.
And the ten horns which thou sawest upon the beast, these shall hate the whore, and shall make her desolate and naked, and shall eat her flesh, and burn her with fire.
For God hath put in their hearts to fulfil his will, and to agree, and give their kingdom unto the beast, until the words of God shall be fulfilled.
And the woman which thou sawest is that great city, which reigneth over the kings of the earth. (Revelation 17:7–18)
It might seem that the description the angel gave John raises more questions than it answers. The prophecy certainly has been fodder for many prophecy students, scholars, teachers, and preachers through the years to ponder and pontificate upon.
Dr. Mark Hitchcock gives the following statement in his book on Babylon:
But one thing is sure from this vision. Whatever the woman and the beast represent, they are very closely tied together. Beauty is riding on the beast.
Her riding the beast indicates that she controls him in some way, or exercises strong influence over him. Their relationship is one of both convenience and necessity.
I believe that the scarlet beast with seven heads and ten horns is the Antichrist and his ten-kingdom empire, as described in detail in Daniel 7 and Revelation 13. The harlot in Revelation 17 represents the false religious system, centered in the city of Babylon, which gives spiritual cohesion to the system.[ii]
The angel’s description of the harlot religious system that is supported and carried about by the scarlet-colored beast has been viewed in many different ways. The study is particularly problematic in trying to pin down where the angel speaks of the beast, his ascending out of the bottomless pit, and going into perdition.
Some believe it to mean that it represents the Roman Empire in some fashion. It never really died, and now comes back to revive and be the final version of the final empire of which both Daniel and John were given visions. Others have interpreted it as the first beast of Revelation 13, who had the deadly wound and lived, which is a reference to a counterfeit resurrection. Dr. Walvoord wrote the following:
17:8 The beast that thou sawest was, and is not; and shall ascend out of the bottomless pit, and go into perdition: and they that dwell on the earth shall wonder, whose names were not written in the book of life from the foundation of the world, when they behold the beast that was, and is not, and yet is.
The angel first gives a detailed description of the beast in his general character. The beast is explained chronologically as that which was, is not, and is about to ascend from the abyss and go into perdition. “The bottomless pit” (Gr., abyssos, meaning “bottomless,” or “the abyss”) is the home of Satan and demons and indicates that the power of the political empire is satanic in its origin as is plainly stated in 13:4. The word perdition…means “destruction” or “utter destruction,” referring to eternal damnation. The power of the political empire in the last days is going to cause wonder as indicated in the questions in 13:4: “Who is like unto the beast? who is able to make war with him?” The overwhelming satanic power of the final political empire of the world will be most convincing to great masses of mankind.
There is a confusing similarity between the descriptions afforded Satan who was apparently described as the king over the demons in the abyss (9:11), “the beast that ascendeth out of the bottomless pit” (11:7), the beast whose “deadly wound was healed” (13:3), and the beast of 17:8. The solution to this intricate problem is that there is an identification to some extent of Satan with the future world ruler and identification of the world ruler with his world government. Each of the three entities is described as a beast. Only Satan himself actually comes from the abyss. The world government which he promotes is entirely satanic in its power and to this extent is identified with Satan. It is the beast as the world government which is revived. The man who is the world ruler, however, has power and great authority given to him by Satan. The fact that Satan and the world ruler are referred to in such similar terms indicates their close relationship one to the other.
While many have attempted to demonstrate from this verse that the final world ruler is some resurrected being such as Judas Iscariot, Nero, or one of the more recent world rulers, it would seem preferable to regard the “eighth” beast as the political power of the world government rather than its human ruler. What is revived is imperial government, not an imperial ruler (cf. Rev. 13:3). That which seemingly went out of existence in history never to be revived is thus miraculously resuscitated at the end of the age.[iii]
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HAS OUR WORLD COME UNDER THE SWAY OF AN ANCIENT ENCHANTRESS? JONATHAN CAHN EXPLAINS ASTONISHING EMERGENCE!
The mysterious woman called the “whore of Babylon” has fornicated with the kings of the earth. She is given great wealth because of her wickedness as symbolic mistress of those in power during this final age of human history that leads to Christ’s Second Advent.
She has been complicit in helping put a murderous end to true believers who come to Christ during this horrific era. She has also, undoubtedly, helped round up of as many of the House of Israel as possible as Antichrist puts into effect his Final Solution.
This religious system is the culmination of all the false-worship entities of history. At the center of her apostasy is the many ways to God and Heaven, as we’ve discussed previously.
It is of great interest to many that the current pope, as of this writing, fits the mold of the one who will be the False Prophet—the second beast of Revelation 13. Dr. Thomas Horn has written a tremendous volume explaining the possibilities of a future pope becoming that second beast. In Petrus Romanus, regarding the explanation of the prophecy about the last pope being the False Prophet of Revelation 13, Horn writes:
As the legend goes, Malachy experienced what is today considered a famous vision commonly called “The Prophecy of the Popes.” The prophecy is a list of Latin verses predicting each of the Roman Catholic popes from Pope Celestine II to the final pope, “Peter the Roman,” whose reign would end in the destruction of Rome. According to this ancient prophecy, the very next pope (following Benedict XVI) will be the final pontiff, Petrus Romanus or Peter the Roman.
The final segment of the prophecy reads:
In persecutione extrema S. R. E. sedebit Petrus Romanus, qui pascet oves in multis tribulationibus: quibus transactis civitas septicollis deruetur et judex tremendus judicabit populum. Finis.[iv]
Which is rendered:
In the extreme persecution of the Holy Roman Church, there will sit Peter the Roman, who will nourish the sheep in many tribulations; when they are finished, the City of Seven Hills will be destroyed, and the dreadful judge will judge his people. The End.[v]
Babylon’s Mystery Minister
This world system, so antithetical to God’s blueprint for humanity, is winding up for the consummation of history by every measure examined by students of Bible prophecy who hold to a pre-Trib, premillennial view.
Global politics, government, and socioeconomics are gushing in the prophet Daniel’s end-times flood (Daniel 9:26) toward the end of the Church Age. But no signal of the approaching apocalypse presents a more laser-like, focused view of the end-of-days dynamics than religious rearrangements taking place locally, nationally, and especially worldwide. The departure from biblical Christianity is so rampant and moving at such a furious pace in American neighborhoods and nationwide that even the most ardent, futurist students of end-times matters are sometimes stunned by developments.
Added to the departure from the faith was the recent closure of churches across America. The social distancing ordered because of the COVID-19 crisis took its toll on the “assembling of ourselves together,” as the Lord admonished (see Hebrews 10:25). Whether the nation will come out of the crisis anywhere near as strong in adherence to Christian worship is a matter of great concern.
Preparations for the harlot system that will hold all within the Fourth Reich captive in its hellish false-worship system is well underway. The prediction of the last pope being the False Prophet of Revelation 13 who will guide and direct that system is therefore worthy of consideration.
The story of St. Malachy injects intriguing speculations and possibilities into the world’s rush into last-days ecumenism. The twelfth-century Irish bishop of the Roman Catholic Church, canonized by Pope Clement III in 1190, presented a fascinating line of predictions that many believe were visions leading to the man who will be the final pope.
St. Bernard of Clairvaux was St. Malachy’s biographer. Clairvaux wrote in his book, Life of Saint Malachy, that Malachy was said to have the gift of prophecy. It is claimed that St. Malachy predicted the exact day and hour of his own death.
Hal Lindsey (author of The Late, Great, Planet Earth) wrote for WorldNet Daily (WND) upon the death of Pope John-Paul II, in 2005, regarding St. Malachy’s papal predictions:
According to his biographer, St. Malachy was visiting Rome in 1139 when he went into a trance and received a vision. Malachy wrote down this extraordinary vision in which he claims to have foreseen all of the popes from the death of Innocent II until the destruction of the church and the return of Christ.
St. Malachy wrote briefly, in Latin, on each succeeding pope of the future, and then gave the document to Pope Innocent II, who had it placed in Vatican archives where it remained for several centuries. It was rediscovered in 1590 and published.
Lindsey wrote:
[Malachy] named exactly 112 popes from that time until the end. The interesting thing is that scholars have matched the brief 110 descriptive predictions with each of the 110 popes and anti-popes that there have been since Innocent II. Though they are a bit obscure, they have fit the general profile of each of the popes.
The bottom line is that the last two popes, John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI, fit the profile that running string of papal succession seems to accurately predict. Number 112 is supposed to be the pope who will head the Roman Catholic Church during the great time of trouble—the Tribulation—according to the Malachy prophecy. He will be, the prediction says, Petrus Romanus (Peter the Roman). Pope Benedict XVI is number 111.
Hal Lindsey wrote further in 2005:
Now, if St. Malachy is accurate, there will be only two more popes before the end of this world, as we know it and the Second Coming of Christ. I do know that the whole prophetic scenario of signs that Jesus Christ and the prophets predicted would come together just before His return are now in view. So what St. Malachy predicted is certainly occurring in the right time frame.
Now, in 2022, we know that Pope Benedict became pontiff in 2005 and later resigned in 2013. This is a fact that Horn and Putnam astoundingly predicted in their book, Petrus Romanus, a year ahead of Benedict’s resignation. Pope Francis was then elevated to the papal throne. If indeed he was canonically elected, he is number 112 of the list of the 112 popes Malachy gave leading to the final pontiff—the pope who will be the False Prophet, according to his reckoning.
UP NEXT: Armageddon
[i] ***Endnote 1 Dr. Arnold Fruchtenbaum, The Footsteps of the Messiah (Tustin, CA: Ariel Ministries Press, 1983), p. 161)***
[ii] Dr. Mark Hitchcock, Babylon Second Coming, note on Robert Thomas 26, Multnoma Press, 2003]***
[iii] Dr. John Walvoord, 17. The Destruction Of Ecclesiastical Babylon | Walvoord.com
https://walvoord.com/article/275 ]***
[iv] M. J. O’Brien, An Historical and Critical Account of the So-Called Prophecy of St. Malachy Regarding the Succession of Popes (Dublin: M. H. Gill & Son, 1880), 82.
[v] ***[Endnote 4 Dr. Thomas Horn and Chris Putnam, Petros Romanus, Defender Publishing]***
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